Get hooked on delicious Xiamen seafood
A year-round subtropical climate, an attractive seascape and beautiful historic villas are not the only reasons why Xiamen is one of China’s most sought-after tourist destinations.
Xiamen is a scenic coastal city with a surprisingly rich food culture that is heavy on seafood and strikingly similar to the cuisine of neighboring Taiwan.
Here, the land is fertile and there are plenty of great fishing spots. Different varieties of fresh seafood can be found at random shops in the back streets of the old quarter, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, down the local market and in high-scale dining outlets.
Local people love to hang out at hole-in-the-wall seafood eateries while tourists are often seen queuing at big-scale, chain restaurants for Xiamen’s signature seafood dishes.
Ba Shi, the Eighth Seafood Market, is bustling with locals and tourists seeking the freshest produce. It features many vendors selling typical local food.
The best way to understand the city’s food culture is to start from Ba Shi (the Eighth Seafood Market) in the old quarter, between Kaihe Road and Kaiyuan Road.
Everyday the market is bustling with locals and tourists seeking the freshest produce. It features hundreds of vendors and stalls selling fresh seafood just caught from the sea.
There are crabs, fish, abalone, prawn, shrimp, lobster and more, fresh and available at reasonable prices. You will also find rows of eateries in the market specializing in seafood dishes or southern Fujian cuisine. In Xiamen, seafood dishes are usually fresh and light in flavor with original textures and flavors.
“The early bird catches the worm” saying applies here so it is recommended to visit the market in the morning to try out some of the local snacks at the roadside stalls as well.
My favorite seafood place is a lesser-known restaurant called Da Cuo Zhai. It’s situated in a local village just outside the city of Xiamen. The restaurant is housed in an old dwelling called a “cuo.” Local people used to live in the “cuo,” a word to represent their houses, which are mostly large traditional dwellings with a courtyard in the center.
The fried crab is a local dish with the oily shell shiny and the meat alluring.
Compared to those big chain seafood restaurants, Da Cuo Zhai gives off an intimate vibe feeling, like dining in someone’s own house. The seafood dishes all taste delicious and fresh here, especially the octopus in a mixture of soy sauce and water, as well as the fried crab. The fried crab is a local dish with the oily shell shiny and the meat alluring.
Seafood is an inseparable part of the local food culture but there is much more to discover in Xiamen. Street food and local snacks are abundant here and a casual stroll in the city’s historic center will bring you to the best spots for some very authentic local snacks. Your foodie adventure will include sampling tu sun dong (sandworm jelly) and getting a taste of satay noodles.
Sandworm jelly is a favorite snack of locals that can be enjoyed at any time of the day. It is a kind of annelida, named sandworm, which is similar to lumbrical. The sandworms are boiled into a jelly mould, which tastes slightly sweet and crunchy. Locals love eating them with mustard, coriander leaves and turnip slices. You can find the jelly sold in any street-food joint, but locals recommend Tianhe Ximen Tusundong, near Zhongshan Park.
The seafood dishes taste delicious and fresh at Da Cuo Zhai.
Satay noodles is another notable Fujian food from Xiamen — the secret is in its appetizing soup cooked with satay sauce. Locals are fond of their satay noodles and the best noodle joints are always those with people queuing outside.
At first glance, some would think it’s similar to a Singaporean Laksa but when you taste the soup, you’ll definitely spot the difference. The soup is not spicy, it has a nutty flavor. The satay sauce is mainly made from shrimps. Deep-fry the ground shrimp and garlic paste, mix well with pepper powder, curry powder, five spice power and sesame, and it results in a satay sauce.
Wutang Satay Noodles is the top place to sample its famous local noodle soup.
The flat rice noodles are cooked well and is best slurped along with the soup. The toppings are bountiful and you can choose whatever toppings you prefer.
Wutang is the best place to sample the famous local snack and a queue is usually spotted. The price is based on the choice of different ingredients. The satay soup here is strong and fragrant but not greasy, with a touch of peanut aroma.
